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Rating: 
Summary: Classic Peanuts strips circa 1958-1961
Review: "Thank Goodness for People" combines reprinted strips from a pair of "Peanuts" collections. The daily strips from the years 1959 and 1960 are from "Go Fly a Kite, Charlie Brown" where in addition to his travails over flying a kite Charlie Brown becomes a brother with the birth of his sister Sally. However, it takes a while for Sally to actually appear in her first strip (playing spin the milk bottle with Snoopy), at which point she almost costs her big brother a chance to be the goat in yet another baseball game. However, the real star of this particular collection is clearly Linus, who spends his time throwing rocks in a vacant lot, fretting about the future and the peace of the world, falling very hard for his new teacher, Miss Othmar (he does not worship here, he is just very fond of the ground on which she walks), and teaching Charlie Brown about the Great Pumpkin. Then there is the great danger Snoopy faces when he wakes up one morning and discovers a giant icicle poised perilously over his doghouse; fortunately he is actually sleeping IN the doghouse instead of ON the doghouse. There is also the appearance of Pig Pen, Snoopy's conversations with leaves, and yet another Beethoven's birthday to be celebrated. The rear of the book reprints strips from "Peanuts Every Sunday, which shows us that Charles M. Schulz was not just a master of the four panel daily comic strip but could do wonders with the top half of the front page of the Sunday comics. Few of these Sunday strips from 1958-1961 have a minimum of 8 panels; there are more with 12 or 13 panels, which is certainly at the high end of the spectrum for what you would find in the Sunday comics (then or now). As with his daily strips, Schulz's strength is in telling a story over several strips: my favorite are three devoted to Linus discovering he can make it stop raining. There are a couple of other strips involving Linus and the rain as well, establishing something of a recurring motif for these strips. There are also a couple of strips devoted to the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown trying to fly a kite, Linus running away from home, Lucy listening to Schroeder play the piano, and the joys of snowball throwing. There are also several classic strips involving cloud watching and stargazing. Clearly the late 1950s and the entire 1960s were the heyday of Peanuts, as the strips within these pages clearly prove. You will also be pleased to notice that several of the strips included in both parts of this volume ended up making their way into the first animated "Peanuts" television cartoon, "A Charlie Brown Christmas."
Rating:
Summary: Classic Peanuts strips circa 1958-1961
Review: "Thank Goodness for People" combines reprinted strips from a pair of "Peanuts" collections. The daily strips from the years 1959 and 1960 are from "Go Fly a Kite, Charlie Brown" where in addition to his travails over flying a kite Charlie Brown becomes a brother with the birth of his sister Sally. However, it takes a while for Sally to actually appear in her first strip (playing spin the milk bottle with Snoopy), at which point she almost costs her big brother a chance to be the goat in yet another baseball game. However, the real star of this particular collection is clearly Linus, who spends his time throwing rocks in a vacant lot, fretting about the future and the peace of the world, falling very hard for his new teacher, Miss Othmar (he does not worship here, he is just very fond of the ground on which she walks), and teaching Charlie Brown about the Great Pumpkin. Then there is the great danger Snoopy faces when he wakes up one morning and discovers a giant icicle poised perilously over his doghouse; fortunately he is actually sleeping IN the doghouse instead of ON the doghouse. There is also the appearance of Pig Pen, Snoopy's conversations with leaves, and yet another Beethoven's birthday to be celebrated. The rear of the book reprints strips from "Peanuts Every Sunday, which shows us that Charles M. Schulz was not just a master of the four panel daily comic strip but could do wonders with the top half of the front page of the Sunday comics. Few of these Sunday strips from 1958-1961 have a minimum of 8 panels; there are more with 12 or 13 panels, which is certainly at the high end of the spectrum for what you would find in the Sunday comics (then or now). As with his daily strips, Schulz's strength is in telling a story over several strips: my favorite are three devoted to Linus discovering he can make it stop raining. There are a couple of other strips involving Linus and the rain as well, establishing something of a recurring motif for these strips. There are also a couple of strips devoted to the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown trying to fly a kite, Linus running away from home, Lucy listening to Schroeder play the piano, and the joys of snowball throwing. There are also several classic strips involving cloud watching and stargazing. Clearly the late 1950s and the entire 1960s were the heyday of Peanuts, as the strips within these pages clearly prove. You will also be pleased to notice that several of the strips included in both parts of this volume ended up making their way into the first animated "Peanuts" television cartoon, "A Charlie Brown Christmas."
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